Still Waiting for “Superprincipal”: Policy Maker Expectations Regarding School-Based Leaders, 2001-2010

• In Event: Roundtable Session 90
  In Roundtable Session: Instructional and Transformational Leadership

Abstract

This study seeks to understand how US policymaker expectations regarding principals changed during the NCLB decade and whether these altered expectations are reflected in principals’ descriptions of their work. We used historical methodology to map connections and locate themes among principal-centered reform policies from the past ten years. We found that policymakers framed the principal as: (1) the focal point of school improvement initiatives, (2) someone who must delegate leadership to others, and (3) someone who must accept ultimate individual responsibility for school results. We subsequently analyzed interview data from 40 principals to examine how these policy themes impacted school leaders. In the end, the decade witnessed a continued search for an updated version of the mythical “superprincipal” (Copland, 2001).

Authors

• Craig Martin Peck, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Ulrich C. Reitzug, University of North Carolina - Greensboro

• Deborah Lynn West, Eastern Kentucky University